World briefs

HSBC Holdings’ $US7.4 billion sale of its stake in Ping An Insurance to Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont has been cleared by regulators, helping Europe’s largest bank by market value revive earnings. Dhanin’s Charoen Pokphand Group and HSBC said payment was made in cash after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the sale of 976.1 million Hong Kong-traded shares in the nation’s second-largest insurer, ending six weeks of speculation over the deal’s fate. Bloomberg

A Vietnamese court sentenced 22 members of an outlawed Buddhist sect to lengthy prison terms for attempting to overthrow the Communist government, in one of the largest such trials in years. Lawyer Nguyen Huong Que said group leader Phan Van Thu was sentenced to life in prison while 21 others, including his son, were jailed for between 10 and 17 years by the People’s Court in central province of Phu Yen at the end of the week-long trial.AP

Iran considers an offer to negotiate directly with the United States over its nuclear program as a “step forward" and expects to resume meetings with world powers later this month, the Persian Gulf nation’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said. Talks to defuse tension over Iran’s nuclear work will be held in Kazakhstan Feb. 25, Salehi said.The US will offer bilateral negotiations if the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is prepared for “serious" discussions, US Vice-President
Joe Biden
said the day before. Bloomberg

Baidu Inc.’s travel-booking website, China’s biggest, expects to double sales this year to about 1 billion yuan ($US160 million) helped by an expanding middle class and rising use of its mobile application. Qunar.com Inc. may generate 20 percent of bookings via wireless devices this year, compared with less than 15 percent last year. Bloomberg

The Japanese coastguard says two Chinese government ships entered waters around Tokyo-controlled islands that Beijing claims as its own. The maritime surveillance boats arrived in the waters around what Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyus yesterday. Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe
has stressed that there is no room for Tokyo to compromise over the territorial row, but has expressed his wish to meet with his Chinese counterpart to improve bilateral ties. AFP

The former head of Iran’s central bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri, has been found in possession of a cheque worth €54 million ($71 million) by German authorities, Bild am Sonntag reports. Mr Mazaheri, in charge of the central bank until 2008, was searched by customs officers at Dusseldorf airport on January 21 after arriving aboard a flight from Turkey. The cheque, with a value of 300 million Venezuelan bolivars, was confiscated from his hand luggage, according to the report. AFP

Millions of Cubans have voted for parliamentary candidates in elections that critics say are closed and offer no real competition, but that the government defends as part of grass-roots democracy. The elected unicameral legislature will convene on February 24 and pick a new parliament chief for the first time in two decades, with the body’s ­long-time leader, Ricardo Alarcon, not on the ballot. The body is also expected to rename Raul Castro, whom state TV showed casting his ballot in the eastern province of Santiago on Sunday, as president for another five years.AFP